Nasty draw for the Republic, hopefully we'll raise our game against big-name opposition as we've tended to in the past. Spain is obviously a nightmare but the positive is that the well-known counter-strategy to tika-taka is pretty much the system we play all the time anyway. We have a pretty good record against Italy and it'll be great craic for Trapattoni, Croatia have been really inconsistent for the past few years so hopefully the team that shows up for the tournament will be crap enough to lose to us.

I know it's all clutching at straws really. I should be disappointed with that draw but really I'm just pants-wettingly excited about getting to see Ireland take on Spain, Italy and Croatia at the Euros.

Originally Posted by indiaholic

Ireland on the other hand are everything that is good and just and beautiful in this world.

Will be hilarious if Greece somehow win the thing by stinking the joint out in the same fashion they did eight years ago. I hope they don't, but it would be amusing if they generate some casualties along the way to going out, the amount of lolz generated last time round was hilarious.

So if we can do a number of the French, then thats a group we should be winning. With a tasty Quarter to follow (Spain/Italy for a battle of the big guns, or Ireland for a right royal battle).

Can we just avoid Germany in the semi's please? Or the final infact, someone needs to beat them for us - They are my tip for the title

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher." - Ambrose Bierce

Langeveldt: I of course blame their parents.. and unchecked immigration!GingerFurball: He's Austrian, they tend to produce the odd ****ed up individualBurgey: Be careful dealing with neighbours whose cars don't have wheels but whose houses do.Uppercut: Maybe I just need better strippers

I am a brave man, I am a coward.I am the tiger, I am the flower.I am honest, and I'm a liar.I am vital, I am tired.I am a free man, I am caught.From where I am, I see the top.I am most importantly never concerned with what I am not.Forever, more than just surviving.THIS IS MY LIFE AND THIS LIFE IS MY DIAMOND

So the most exciting bit (from an England perspective) happens at 5pm GMT - the draw.

We need one mediocre Scandinavian team to draw against first up, or lose to in the final group game.
A big name who are currently crap, to heroically defeat 1-0.
And one other team to struggle against.